Things slip away at the end for Punxsy

Punxsy's keeper Aly Dickey dropkicks the ball during the second half of Punxsy's game against DCC Monday in Punxsutawney. The Lady Chucks fell 4-0 to DCC, but the score doesn't indicate how close the game was, as Punxsy trailed by just one goal with ten minutes remaining. Punxsy head coach Kevin Hughes said he was pleased with Dickey's performance in net Monday. (Photo by Zak Lantz/The Punxsutawney Spirit)

PUNXSUTAWNEY — Despite only trailing 1-0 with 10 minutes to play Monday afternoon, the Lady Chucks' soccer team allowed three goals in the final 10 minutes against DCC, making the score look worse than it was and giving DCC a 4-0 win.

"Defensively, we looked good for most of the game, and then at the very end, we had girls getting tired," Punxsy head coach Kevin Hughes said. "When you're tired, you rely on the next wing to come out and help, but that wasn't happening tonight."

Hughes also said that a big part of the fatigue factor is mental fatigue.

"It's one of those mental things," he said. "You get tired, and you start to think about things that would usually be automatic. Defensively, fatigue may have been a bit of a factor. Offensively, we just had a few bad touches at the wrong time."

Punxsy's problem so far this year has been finishing the game, and today was no different, unfortunately.

"We had some spurts of really good intensity, and we had some really good looks today," Hughes said. "But we're still not using the wings like we should be. We were faster in most cases today, and then when we crossed the ball in we got a couple attempts, but we just didn't get where we needed to be."

DCC's Madeline Robinson had given it the lead with a first-half goal, but the Lady Chucks were controlling the ball for the majority of the second half. The shots they made just didn't connect, though.

"I am ecstatic about some of the situations we put ourselves in today, but we just didn't have enough of them," Hughes said.

DCC's Aundrea Snyder scored the goal that broke the game open with 9:50 remaining in the second half, and Maddie Meyers and Kate Wright added goals for DCC, as well.

"DCC's a pretty good team," Hughes said. "It looked like a couple of their key players made a few bad touches on the ball today, and it would have been nice to capitalize on that. But it didn't happen for us today."

Hughes did see some positives from some of his players, though.

"Sierra Milton was moving the ball really well pretty much the whole game," he said. "And our keeper, Aly Dickey, looked good. The one ball that was over her hands, she would have had with a little more experience. Her movement was good back there, and she had a few good saves on some hard balls shot at her. For not being out there much, she played really well."

Punxsy has a few days to hone their skills at practice before hosting Brookville in its next game Thursday in Punxsutawney.